1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motorized table apparatus, such as a microscope stage, allowing a use in a field requiring a positioning.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional motorized table apparatus for use in a microscope (simply noted as “motorized table” hereinafter) employs in its drive unit a rotary motor, such as a stepping motor, and a motion transmission mechanism for converting a rotational drive force of the motor into a directional movement of a table. These motor and motion transmission mechanism need a large installation space, hence creating a problem of protruding from the upper surface and/or outer periphery of the table. As an example, if an observer who has been using a manual table apparatus (simply noted as “manual table” hereinafter) by covering with by a box, such as a thermal insulation box, limiting a space surrounding the table, or using a manual table by placing various apparatuses, such as a micro-manipulator and incubator wants to replace the manual table with a motorized table, the latter take a larger space than the former, and therefore it is difficult to simply replace the former.
In order to solve such a problem, proposed is a motorized table using an ultrasonic wave actuator as represented by Laid-Open Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2005-265996 and 2000-28767.